Patriarch Bartholomew calls for a new relationship with nature

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew used the start of the new ecclesiastical year to deliver a forceful appeal for a different relationship between humanity and nature. In his September 1 message, he connected environmental destruction with the way modern society understands freedom, economic growth and human responsibility.

The Ecumenical Patriarchate established September 1 as a day of prayer for the protection of the natural environment in 1989. Bartholomew said the ecological crisis reaches beyond physical damage to the natural world. He described it as a crisis involving human freedom, religion, philosophy, ethics and culture.

He pointed to ecological conferences, inter-Christian and interfaith dialogue, and the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s environmental proposals as part of a wider response. That response, he said, requires a “Copernican turn” in how humanity understands progress and its place in nature. The patriarchate will continue promoting the theological dimension of protecting creation, he said.

Bartholomew also argued that highlighting the religious and moral dimensions of the environmental threat could deepen awareness of responsibility. “Ultimately, man must stop acting as if he did not know and definitively abandon the illusion that the planet Earth can forever overcome human burdens and destruction, that nature has the power to renew itself on its own,” he said.

His message criticized a development model built on the continuous accumulation of wealth and consumption. Humanity, he said, is undermining its future and destroying its “home,” while modern human behavior creates new divisions between people and nature. He called for environmental responsibility at every level, from international action to personal conduct.

“

Ultimately, man must stop acting as if he did not know and definitively abandon the illusion that the planet Earth can forever overcome human burdens and destruction, that nature has the power to renew itself on its own.